Grand Hotel Portorož - LifeClass Hotels & Spa — Hotel in Upravna enota Piran / Unità amministrativa Pirano

This is NOT a guest-centric hotel. Allow me to explain.

First of all, I would like to invite you to check my other reviews - all 5 stars! So this hotel made me really upset to deserve a 1 star.

The main complaint I have is that we paid extra for a sea view room with a balcony, only to receive a room looking at the roof of the hotel with a SHARED balcony (not even a balcony, but a corner terrace surrounded by concrete!). I booked this in advance as a surprise birthday trip for my mother and got all the extras as my mother loves to watch the sea from the balcony. I chose this hotel because of the advertised sea view. I even let the hotel know in advance to make sure that everything was confirmed, etc. When we saw the room, I was sure they must have made a mistake, so I went downstairs and I said "I think we got the wrong room, we booked one with a sea view" to which the lady rudely responded "your room is a sea view". I showed her the photos of the view and she said "well it's technically categorised as a sea view" relating to an inch of the sea in the background (anywhere else this would have been sea facing, if that). Said there's nothing she can do about it as the management says "it is categorised as sea view". I emailed the management who offered us a different room 16 hours before check out. I asked for a refund of the difference and never heard back.

So: no sea view, false advertising, shared balcony and rude staff.

Other than that, our key card was expired so we had issues entering the spa. We also paid extra for a garage and ended up waiting for a valet for 25+ minutes on the day of the check out just to realise they never gave them the keys.

Food was okay, very limited lactose free (only soy milk) and vegeterian options (mostly just salads). Staff do the bare minimum of what qualifies as doing their job. The pools and the spa were nice. I would say the spa world was a highlight with 7 saunas. Staff there was friendly.

We have stayed at hotels around the world and the customer service here is just not comperable. We didn't expect any special treatment for a special occasion but what we did expect is getting the service that we paid for. I'm leaving this review in the hope that LifeClass educates themselves a bit about guest experience; my mother would have been a repeat guest, but all they care about is squeezing money out of people regardless of the experience they give to the guest.

There are plenty of hotels in Portorož - I would recommend one that isn't by LifeClass. If you do still book with them, I would at least recommend you book through a third party (e.g., Booking) so if something like this happens to you they can intervene. Trust when I say, LifeClass won't...

Don’t get me wrong the hotel has a nice location and probably there are not that many better hotels in Portoroz, but it is quite outdated.|The rooms are spacious, but the design is old. The pool area is terrible, I went there ones and did not have any wish to go back, smelly huge , mass market pools, which feel like not a posh hotels ones , but like some municipal ones.|The beach is not bad, but you still have to pay for loungers and you have to bring the towels from the room.|The breakfast is good though, nothing to complain here.|The cleaning staff is good, very fast and cleaning it at the high standards.|The amenities in the rooms , like shampoos, shower gel are of a good quality.|But they do not have any coffee and tea making station, which I did not see in any hotel for a long time. I don’t understand how difficult can it be to have at least a kettle in the room?|The positive is their cafe downstairs , it is more newly renovated and quite pleasant to chill.|Also the Thai spa in their sister hotel is fantastic, we used it on a numerous occasions and all the therapists were good, so well worth checking it out.|Also all receptionists were good, except from Jelena.|When we were checking out and by the way we had two rooms and stayed here for 6 or 7 nights ( so pretty good guests I would say) and we asked to have slightly late check out at least for one room, she did not bother to do anything, and “ kindly” offered us extra 30 minutes. … Sorry you do not ask for 30 minutes… I heard that the other receptionist let the other fellow extra 2 hours , that fellow had also two rooms and was alllowed to keep one longer. Also on the other occasions at the same hotel the other guest was allowed. So if I were hotel manager, I would not keep Jelena there at all.|Therefore terrible service .|I would not get back to this hotel and would no one...

We have been to the Grand Hotel multiple times, and each year the food has become worse and the staff has become more frustrated. The hotel mainly attracts bus tourists who stay for two nights or a bit longer. Accordingly the hotel management runs the business. Four star superior is more marketing than anything else.

The buffet is large but it is difficult to find anything of decent quality with the exception of the pasta, which is always good. The hotel management cuts corners which a 4* superior hotel cannot afford to cut. Likewise the hotel does not reply to critique.

Apart from the questionable food quality, the nights are ridiculously loud. Either there is loud music until late at night from the hotel itself, or from one of the close by bars. Even with closed windows the nights are still very loud.

What is decidedly positive is the thermal spa access. Also the gym is well equipped, though with partly very worn out equipment.

Lifeclass owns most of the Portoroz hotels, which is why they think they can get away with this. The staff knows this, yet there is not much they can do. It is a management problem.

If you only stay for two nights, you will be fine. If you plan on staying longer, this may not be the place for you.

The hotel has great potential, loyal staff but the current administration is maximising profits at the expense of quality.

We would love to come back. However, not at the moment that there is not the slightest improvement in sight. After spending five figures over the last couple of stays, we decided to look elsewhere and have not regretted it.

The issues this hotel chain has become more apparent when you see what else is available for that...